Orlando nursing grad knows 'what it's like to be in ICU and scared'

August 3, 2008|By Luis Zaragoza, Sentinel Staff Writer

Erin Brock tried to ignore the stubborn pain that gripped her back last year.

She didn't want anything to distract her from graduating in May with a nursing degree from the University of Central Florida. She also was getting valuable practical experience with patients by working part time as a nurse's assistant at Orlando Regional Medical Center.

"I was very determined that this would not slow me much," Brock said. "By God's grace, here I am."

She's already shared her story with patients coping with pain and thinks her ordeal will help her bond with future patients.

All the pain Brock has been through "shouldn't have happened to her," said Sigrid Ladores, one of Brock's teachers. "But she'll be a much more compassionate nurse. Because of what she's been through, she can appreciate more than most just how fragile life can be."

Brock, 21, of Orlando decided while attending Colonial High School that nursing was her calling. She dreamed of working with infants in intensive care.

"I just love babies," Brock said. "That's where my heart is."

While training for a 5K run in March 2007, she began to notice pain in her back. By fall the pain pushed her to seek treatment. A medical scan showed a tumor growing along the bones in her spine. She had surgery in September at ORMC to remove a benign giant-cell tumor. Such tumors are rare and can damage bones, so removal is the preferred treatment.

Within six weeks of her surgery, the pain in her back returned. Scans showed a tumor larger than the first.

She was heartbroken, not just because the tumor had returned, but because the surgery would derail her plans to graduate with her classmates in May.

In February, she had a nine-hour operation that required three incisions to remove the tumor and reinforce bones in her spine and rib cage with titanium plates, rods and screws. Afterward, she faced radiation treatments and physical therapy.

"I couldn't move at first," Brock said. "Every move was very painful. I needed help just to roll over in bed."

Brock had seen plenty of patients in pain after surgery or an accident. During her own ordeal, she had moments when she thought to herself, "Oh, man, so this is what my patients are going through."

Her Christian faith and family support, she said, sustained her through moments of despair and worry. Gradually her pain subsided. She vowed to graduate this year.

"She never whined or said she wanted special attention," said Patricia Leli, a degree coordinator for UCF's College of Nursing. "Her commitment is astounding."

Brock's latest scans show the tumor has not returned.

She's engaged and busy planning a November wedding. And later this month, she will kick off her career in her dream job: the neonatal intensive-care unit at Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies in Orlando.